


Late Nights

by keepasecretgetastrawberry



Series: Shiro x Reader One Shots [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Other, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader angst, Shiro (Voltron) Angst, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 18:18:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12371346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepasecretgetastrawberry/pseuds/keepasecretgetastrawberry
Summary: For a prompt on tumblr:Maybe some Shiro x Reader? Comforting after a nightmare?





	Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't know whether to go for Shiro comforting the reader or the reader comforting Shiro, so eventually I went for both XD
> 
> Warnings: Nightmares, PTSD, Panic Attacks

Before you could knock on his door, you hesitated, hand laying to rest on the white panel.

You knew Shiro suffered from insomnia, and struggled to get even an hour of sleep mostnights - despite being the one on the team to encourage the others through their tiredness. Ifhe was asleep, you didn’t want to wake him on the one night he got some sleep. If he wasawake, you didn’t want to disturb him with your problems.

But you needed reassurance that the nightmare you had wasn’t real, and you didn’t knowwhere else to go.

Taking a deep breath, you knocked on the door as quietly as you could, although the soundstill made a loud contrast to the near-silent mechanical background hum of the castle. Asyou winced at the sound, the door opened with a soft  swoosh .

“Y/N?” Shiro’s eyebrows creased in concern upon seeing you. “Is everything okay?”

You couldn’t get the words out, the memory of the nightmare resurfacing and making yourhands shake. “I - I -”

Shiro took your hand and pulled you gently inside his room, then shut the door, beforeleading you to sit on his bed and wrapping an arm around you. You curled your legs up into aball, letting Shiro place a hand on the back of your head as you lay your head on his chest.

“You’re okay.” Shiro’s voice was calm and soothing, providing a source of comfort in the darkroom. “You’re okay.”

Shiro didn’t say anything as you finally allowed tears to fall from your eyes, simply held youclose and rocked you ever so gently. You weren’t quite sure how long you’d been there for,crying into Shiro’s chest while he kept making calming motions, emphasising the lengths ofhis breaths if yours started to speed up. Eventually you’d calmed down fully, your eyes dryand your breathing regular. Your boyfriend still kept an arm around you, nonetheless.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

You wondered how he did it, sometimes - kept his voice measured and calm even when itwas obvious he was feeling emotional too. You guessed it was part of being a leader -keeping your head when everyone around you was losing theirs.

“We lost,” you croaked out, voice cracking. “We lost, and I saw - I saw you die, Shiro, youand Lance and Keith and Allura and - a-and  everyone  -” 

You were so sick of the tears, but they had returned, spilling from your eyes and leaving trails down your cheeks. Shiro shushed you, smoothing your hair away from your facebefore turning to grab a tissue and pressing it gently into your palm, keeping one hand as acomforting presence on your shoulder.

“It’s alright.” You highly doubted it would be, but let Shiro continue. “Y/N, it was all a dream.I’m right here in front of you. Lance is in bed, getting his full eight hours he always insists on;so are Hunk, Keith, Coran and Allura. Pidge is probably asleep next to a wall somewherehunched over her laptop, but she’s still safe from harm, as are you. I’ve got you, I’m notgoing anywhere unless you want me to, and you are safe.”

You allowed his words to calm you, nodding before bringing the tissue to your face andcleaning yourself up a little. After blowing your nose, you wrapped your arms around Shiro,burying your face in his shoulder as he brought an arm around your back in response.

“Thank you,” you whispered, feeling yourself relax a little more as your boyfriend madecontinuous rubbing motions on your back.

“Do you want to go back to your room, or stay here?”

 You tensed even at the thought of going back to your room, alone in the dark with only yourthoughts for company. You tightened your grip around Shiro as your answer, and felt him nodin response. 

“Okay, that’s okay. Feel free to wake me up if you have any more nightmares, okay?”

The two of you remained in each other’s arms as you both got into bed. After a few minutesof quiet, your synchronised breathing being the only sound, you felt yourself begin to driftasleep again.

The last thing you remembered was the sensation of lips on your forehead, paired withwords you were too tired to make out as you fell back into darkness.

 

* * *

A soft groaning was what woke you up. 

Blinking, you tried to adjust your eyes to the darkness, fumbling for a light. Before you couldfind one, however, you heard a sound of discomfort coming from next to you, and realisedwho it was coming from.

“Shiro?”

His breathing was ragged, and he sounded as if he was in pain. When you hurriedlyswitched on the light, you could see his face was contorted with fear, sweat matting his hairand forming droplets on the side of his jawline.

“Shiro.” You knew to keep your distance as much as you could; Keith had warned againstwaking the Black Paladin from a nightmare while in punching distance, after he had ended upwith a bruise the time he’d tried. He hadn’t minded at all, but Shiro was still beating himself upabout it now, and you didn’t want to add onto that any more.

“Shiro!” you tried, raising your voice, but to no avail. Shiro had begun muttering things underhis breath, a pained whine escaping his throat that sent a jolt to your heart along with a seriesof ‘no's, over and over.

You were just debating going to get someone else, who would be better equipped to help withthe situation, when Shiro had bolted upright with a scream, limbs jerking. From what Keithhad told you, it was best to wait a few seconds until the man before you knew where he was, but it was painful to witness. Watching Shiro emerge from a nightmare, struggling with thesheets around his legs with an expression of terror before falling off of the bed with apainful-sounding  thump , wasn’t something you wanted to experience again. 

Running to the side of the bed where Shiro had fallen, you felt another jolt to yourheart at the sight of your boyfriend hunched into himself, knees drawn to his chest as hegasped for air, breath coming in short pants. You’d seen this before. Calmly as you could,you knelt in front of Shiro, speaking softly.

“Shiro?”

He didn’t appear to hear you, gasping as his hands tugged at his hair. You tried again.

“Shiro, baby, can you look at me?”

You heard a hitch in his throat, saw his shoulders rise a fraction higher than thehyperventilation was causing, and took that as a sign he was at least registering yourpresence. Slowly, steadily, you reached for his human hand, coaxing his fingers away fromhis hair - he’d pulled out loads of strands in the past - and holding his hand in yours.

“Takashi.”

His head rose to look at you, eyes wide and panicked, his breathing not slowing. Yousqueezed his hand gently.

“Okay, you know how this is going to go, yeah?” Shiro nodded. “Breathe with me. In for four,hold for two, out for four.” You began counting and breathing, and paid close attention as heattempted to breathe with you. It took several tries, his breathing slipping and increasingagain every so often, but eventually you were breathing in unison.

“Do you think you can keep breathing calmly without me now?” you asked, and at Shiro’snod, stopped the counting. After a few minutes of silence, Shiro let out a choked half-laugh,leaning back against his bed.

“I’m sorry.”

Frowning, you eyed him cautiously. “What for?”

“This.” Running his hands through his hair, Shiro let out something akin to a frustrated growl.

“I’m supposed to be the  leader, not - not -”

“Not experiencing a  perfectly normal response  so the trauma you’ve faced?” you interjected,feeling your frown deepen. “Not experiencing nightmares, like  I  was earlier tonight?”

Guilt flashed across Shiro’s features, and he sent you an apologetic look. “I didn’t mean - it’snot -”

“You’re not any less of a good leader for experiencing these things, Shiro.” You scoochedcloser to him, allowing one hand to card your fingers through his hair. “You went through hellfor a year, and then were thrust into fighting the same enemies that had kept you in that hell.It’s  okay  to be afraid. It’s  okay  to have nightmares, and panic attacks, because they don’tmake you any less of a leader. The team wouldn’t follow you if they didn’t already know that.”

Shiro made a vague noise of agreement, but you doubted the message would really sink in.

You’d have to keep addressing it.

“Do you want to talk about your nightmare?” you asked, and received a rapid head shakingin return.

“Not now.”

“Okay,” you murmured, leaning onto his shoulder. “Maybe tomorrow, then. How about we tryand get some more sleep?”

Shiro nodded in agreement, and the two of you returned to sleep wrapped in each other’sarms, knowing that the other would protect you from whatever nightmares came.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just thought I should add this: do not take this one shot as advice on how to deal with panic attacks. In this work the reader took Shiro's hand to help bring him out of it, but this is implied to have worked before and is not universal - some people absolutely hate being touched while during a panic attack and it can make things worse. Breathing exercises are a good idea though. Everyone experiences panic attacks differently.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and do leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed! They really make my day :)


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